As usual, southern hospitality is keeping HeroesCon at the Charlotte Convention center a laid-back relax-a-con as opposed to some of the more frantic offerings on the con schedule. Heroes organizer Shelton Drum gave us the literal bird-eye view of the show last night — pre-reg was high, and the show floor is completely sold out, another vindication of either the “fantasy economy” or the appeal of the comic-con entertainment model. The incredible guest list — from Mike Mignola to Sammy Harkham — doesn’t hurt either.

The Marvel and DC contingents are rather modest here — Marvel sent an editor or two and DC’s Mark Chiarello and Ian Sattler are around — so there are no Cup O’ Nation panels or news wars …which is kind of a pleasant break from other shows. That leaves comics the main spotlight.

We ran into Rantz Hoseley who is here to announce a new version of Longbox, his digital comics reader, which will be available next week. Digital comics are still a hot topic, so his timing is right, although some observers think Longbox needs to play catch up with some other digital readers at this point.

Today was walk around day. Tomorrow we’ll be hitting a few more panels. A couple of pictures to hold you until then.

The view from above of the massive, massive artist’s alley before set-up.

Generations: artists Will Sliney and Irwin Hasen in the bar on Thursday.

Costumes!

We’ll be mostly wandering around tomorrow, but if you need to find us, try the Templesmith/McCool outpost at AA-416 in Indie Island.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.